- Claire Evans campaigning to stop Soham murderer's 'good life' in prison
- Wants to set record straight about 'lies' told about her over last ten years
- Endured years of physical and mental abuse at hands of 38-year-old killer
- He sexually assaulted her, attacked her in shower and hacked off her hair
- She was even forced to abort their baby after Huntley threatened to hurt it
- Tells how she is now finally in control of her life and determined to move on
By Daily Mail Reporter
Published: | Updated:
'In control of my life': Claire Evans (pictured), the first wife of Soham murderer Ian Huntley, says she's tired of hearing what a good life in prison he has got
The first wife of Ian Huntley says she is determined to make the Soham murderer's time in prison as tough as possible as she spoke about finally moving on with her life.
Claire Evans said she was 'not going to go away' and vowed to continue campaigning to have the killer's luxuries taken away from his cell in Frankland Prison.
She also told how she wanted to set the record straight about 'lies' she believes she has been subjected to in the ten years since the murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
Speaking of her decision to go public, Ms Evans said: 'Its me doing this. I'm in control of my own life now and I'm not going to go away, Ian - I'm gonna make sure that your Xbox and everything you've got in prison is taken away... and I'm going to keep campaigning.
'I'm tired of hearing about prison and how good a life he's got - how he's got an Xbox and how he can get on Twitter and say nasty things, how he can brag about eating cake and everything.
'I'm tired, I want the government to stop his treatment. I want the government to say "right, this is basic human rights for a prisoner" - don't allow cigarettes, that's a luxury... many working class people can't afford cigarettes, so why can a prisoner?'
Ms Evans, 36, endured years of physical and mental abuse at the hands of Huntley, now 38.
He sexually assaulted her, attacked her in the shower and hacked off her hair so that no other man would find her attractive.
She was even forced to abort their baby after Huntley threatened: 'Have that child and I’ll do things to it.'
Ms Evans, who has since married for a third time and is now a mother of two, told in an earlier interview with the Sunday Mirror how 17 years ago Huntley came within seconds of killing her as he tried to crush her windpipe.
Speaking to ITV's This Morning, Ms Evans, 36, said she only now had the strength to give her version of events.
'It's hard. But at least this is my side of the story - at least its the truth that's being told this time, at least its not a pack of lies that's out there... I'm choosing to do this - I'm not walking into a supermarket and all of a sudden I'm on the front cover and it's a load of lies about me.
Scroll down for the interview
Emotional: Ms Evans speaks to Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on This Morning after deciding to go public with her story
Dark times: Ms Evans, pictured here leaving Peterborough Magistrates' Court, told how he nearly killed her by crushing her windpipe
'I'm here because I have a new life. I have matured. I'm not that immature, pathetic teenager. I was making mistakes.
'Now I have my own family and for ten years since he's been sentenced I have not been allowed to move on - and I know that is extremely selfish because I know them families can't move on and rebuild their lives - but when my children are getting involved, with press calls and my pictures in the press again, its unfair.
'I need to move on for my children's sake. I have to put my children first.'
The pair met in 1994, eight years before the murders of Holly and Jessica, while they were both working in a food factory in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Huntley, then 20, was a cleaner while Ms Evans, who was 18, worked as a production operator.
They kissed at the factory's Christmas party and a whirlwind romance followed. Within days Ms Evans had moved into Huntley’s one-bedroom flat and a month later he had proposed.
Killer: Huntley is serving two life sentences with a minimum of 40 years for the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman
The pair got married in January 1995, and soon after the relationship soon became abusive and his behaviour increasingly more bizarre and psychotic.
She said: '(After the wedding day), we got home - and everyone's got a different sense of humour... and I was being sick and he poured a bottle of alcohol over me... he laughed.
'You could put it down to sense of humour, it wasn't my sense of humour but it was his sense of humour. And the next morning there were eggs being thrown at me... he said afterwards I was only messing about.
'Then my birthday was in the middle of March and he had a personal trauma happen and there was something that switched in him and he became... it wasn't hitting... it was mind games. And control. Locking me in the house... everything.'
Ms Evans told how she went from a healthy size 12 to a minuscule size four because of the stress. But although she felt trapped, she believed she had no alternative but to stick with Huntley.
Killed in Huntley's bathroom: Cambridgeshire schoolgirls Holly Wells (left) and Jessica Chapman, in Manchester United football shirts
She has also revealed she was forced to make the heart-breaking decision to have a termination to abort his child - because she was so scared about what Huntley would do to it.
When Huntley eventually found out about the termination, he beat her up.
He finally granted Ms Evans a divorce in 1999. She married his brother Wayne in July 2000, but that relationship ended four years later.
By 2002, Huntley had got together with Maxine Carr, 35, and the pair moved to Soham, Cambridgeshire, where he got a job as a school caretaker and was living in a house in the grounds.
On August 4, when Holly and Jessica went out to buy some sweets, they passed Huntley’s house.
He called them inside, killed them in his bathroom and later disposed of their bodies near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.
He was convicted of their murder the following year, while Carr, who worked as a teaching assistant at the school, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for providing him with a false alibi.
Video: Claire Evans tells her story on ITV's This Morning
